Britain’s new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, declared the controversial Tory policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda as “dead and buried before it started” after convening his first Cabinet session on Saturday and then holding his first press conference since last week’s Labour Party victory that ended Britain’s Conservative Party’s 14 years in office. Starmer dismissed the Rwanda scheme as a gimmick, saying it had failed “as a deterrent”, and that, if anything, is had had “almost the opposite” effect.
He also promised Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the UK’s “unwavering” support.
“Ukraine’s ongoing fight against Russian aggression matters to all of us. The UK’s support remains unshakable. I look forward to seeing President @ZelenskyyUa soon,” UK’s Prime Minister posted on X.
To stem the flow of migrants arriving in the UK from across the English Channel, former-Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak had sought to deter migrants by threatening those who landed with deportation to Rwanda, a costly British government scheme that never took off.
Invoking the Labour Party’s manifesto, Starmer said the UK was “restless for change” and that his government was getting down to business right away. He did caution that the task they faced was huge and that change would not happen quickly.
The new Labour Cabinet comprises a record number of women (11 out of 25 ministers). Starmer noted that most of its ministers were products of the British state school system, unlike their Tory predecessors, most of whom had enjoyed the privileged benefits of elitist public schools like Eton. “I’m proud of the fact that we have people around the Cabinet table who didn’t have the easiest of starts in life,” he remarked pointedly.
On becoming prime minister on Friday, Starmer stressed the duty of service, the need for standards and for setting goals. The challenges faced include a weakened economy, a struggling national health system, and a pressing need to restore faith and trust in government, plus the need to cope with the global problem of absorbing the surging influx of refugees and migrants fleeing adversity, poverty and the ecological disasters arising from climate change.
Today, he makes official visits to each of the UK’s four nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and plans to meet with mayors in the major cities irrespective of their party affiliation in an effort to , to underscore the fact that he is not a “tribal politician.”
On Tuesday, the new PM travels to Washington for a NATO meeting, and on 18 July, the day after the state opening of Parliament and the King’s Speech, which outlines the new government’s agenda, Starmer hosts the European Political Community summit.
Already, he has spoken by phone with world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
